


A Sandy Affair

by osmia_avosetta



Series: Friendly Competition [2]
Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Beach Vacation Gone Wrong, Bromance, Douglas and Theresa being competitive bros as usual, Gen, well not particularly but I've always wanted to use that tag, wow am I predictable or what
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 07:19:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8047447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osmia_avosetta/pseuds/osmia_avosetta
Summary: For clairedrawsairdraws on Tumblr, who prompted "building a sandcastle."Douglas and Theresa are at it again, but this time they're building sandcastles. What could possibly go wrong? A lot, actually.





	A Sandy Affair

**Author's Note:**

  * For [doorwaytoparadise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doorwaytoparadise/gifts).



“Oh dear, is it  _ raining? _ ”

“Oh  _ no,  _ it’s...no, it’s  _ not  _ raining. Damn it, Theresa!”

Theresa smirked and adjusted herself so she was kneeling on the sand, positioned in front of what she hoped was a decent model of Vaduz Castle.

She sneaked a glance at Douglas’s sand castle, still recovering from the time Douglas had accidentally kicked over a delicate tower the first time Theresa had tricked him into thinking it was raining. (That plan involved Arthur, a watering can, and quite a lot of Toblerone.)

Carolyn clucked critically from her lawnchair not far off. “Ten points for execution, Theresa, but I’m afraid only five for success. The first time was better.”

“Mum!” Arthur protested. “They’re building  _ sandcastles,  _ Mum! There aren’t any points for sandcastle building!”

“Yes,” Carolyn replied quickly, “but  _ who  _ here is the boss and chief of these proceedings? Martin, I can see your mouth opening already, do please shut it. It’s not you, it’s  _ me. I  _ make the rules. And all of you, I’m not keen on the look of those clouds. Hurry up.”

“Trying,” Theresa muttered, grabbing one of the cheap plastic shovels they’d gotten from the tiny beach rental kiosk, whose owner was unabashedly staring at the little group. They were the only ones on the strip of beach now. All of the few families that had been huddling on the sand, beach getaway utterly ruined by the heathery gray skies and bitterly cold breeze rolling off the angry slate waves, had fled to their respective shelters to wait out the impending storm. Carolyn, despite everyone’s dearest wishes to find a shelter and wait for warmer weather, had demanded that they take advantage of the scanty beach population to enjoy their brief stay. Unfortunately she hadn’t taken into account the chill, or the fact that each crashing wave on the shore looked as if it were itching to devour them whole.

“Yes,  _ please  _ hurry up,” Martin agreed, bouncing anxiously.

“Martin, stop  _ bouncing! _ ” Douglas groused. “You might kick over that tower again!”

“I-I’m just making sure that t-this is  _ fair, _ ” Martin grumped back.

“ _ Fair?!”  _ Douglas exclaimed. “This is far from  _ fair! _ Theresa and Arthur  _ definitely  _ plotted behind my back earlier to trick me into thinking it was raining that first time!”

“No, I...no, I wasn’t!” Arthur piped up. Theresa momentarily caught a glimpse of his tomato-red face: he was trying to lie and failing miserably. She felt rather sorry for Arthur, seeing that she’d forgotten that he was terrible at lying. “I wasn’t plotting with Theresa!” Arthur continued. “I...I was buying a...a...some Toblerone at duty-free! Yeah, that’s what I was doing!”

“Arthur, we haven’t been at an airport in three weeks,” Douglas pointed out flatly. “We’ve been having a  _ holiday,  _ in case you haven’t quite noticed yet.”

“Okay. Sorry.”

“Well, in any case, I can’t...er, you can’t cheat when you’re against Theresa,” Martin argued loudly, voice carrying down the beach.

“ _ What? _ ” Douglas protested. “ _ I  _ can’t cheat? Have you  _ forgotten _ when she practically sabotaged my perfectly good sandcastle earlier?”

“Well, b-but she’s a  _ princess! _ ” Martin floundered around, trying to argue. Theresa poked a few holes in her sandcastle to serve as windows and used her fingernail to refine the shape.

“Oh, and she can try to trick me, then?”

“W-well, no, it’s not that, but…”

“Martin, go splash around in the waves or something. We appreciate your fierce defense of the royalty of Liechtenstein, but it’s starting to get annoying,” Carolyn called from her chair.

“The waves aren’t the best idea, if I can contribute,” Theresa muttered, eyeing the gray sheets pounding on the shoreline.

Silence descended upon the little group for a bit before-

“Hey, Theresa,” Douglas started.

“What is it?”

“I think - I  _ think... _ it might be raining.”

A beat.

“Douglas, that won’t work on me.  _ I’m  _ the one who tricked you first, and of all the people here I think  _ I  _ should know what is rain and what -”

A single drop splashed onto her sandcastle.

“Isn’t,” Theresa finished feebly, staring at the sky and getting a couple drops in her face in consequence.

“Alright, everyone inside!”

They made a mad dash for the beach rental hut, startling the gangly employee inside as the sky opened and sheets of rain poured down upon the beach.

And as the little group crammed into the tiny hut, drenched in rain, they grudgingly called it a draw.


End file.
